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Financial Institutions to Offer TMG’s Fraud Text Alerts

(Des Moines, Iowa – November 27, 2012) – Cardholders of nearly 60 financial institutions (FIs) can now opt-in for receipt of fraud text alerts, a mobile banking service available to the cardholders of TMG’s clients.

FIs offering TMG’s fraud text alert service include:

  • Deere Employees Credit Union based in Moline, Ill., with 22 locations throughout Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, North Dakota, South Carolina and Wisconsin
  • DuTrac Community Credit Union headquartered in Dubuque, Iowa, and serving members from 11 Iowa locations
  • Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union based in Indianapolis, Ind., and its seven branches in Indiana
  • Mission Federal Credit Union headquartered in San Diego, Calif., with 22 branches throughout San Diego County
  • Purdue Federal Credit Union based in West Lafayette, Ind., with 11 statewide  locations
  • United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU) headquartered in Long Island City, N.Y., with three branches in New York and representative offices at UN duty stations in Rome, Italy; Vienna, Austria; Geneva, Switzerland; and Nairobi, Kenya.

In addition, TMG Financial Services, TMG sister company and agent issuer of ATIRAcredit for more than 50 FIs, has signed on to provide TMG’s fraud text alert services to ATIRAcredit cardholders.

“As we’ve talked with our partners and cardmembers, they’ve encouraged the development of mobile features for credit cards, particularly a tool like this that allows us to act quickly when there is a questionable transaction,” said April Schmaltz, vice president of marketing for TMG Financial Services.  “We expect our cardmembers will embrace this convenient and effective fraud prevention tool.”

“We understand cardholders are an important line of defense in the ongoing fight against card fraud,” said Merrill Halpern, AVP of Card Services at United Nations Federal Credit Union. “By providing our members with real-time transaction information — right on their mobile devices — we have given them a useful tool, alongside us, to combat fraud.”

Fraud text alerts are triggered by an FI’s unique fraud prevention strategies, not by individual cardholder-initiated settings. “Many financial-management text alerts, including TMG’s Visa Transaction Alerts, are triggered by cardholder-initiated settings, which is excellent for budgeting and account management,” explained Karen Postma, TMG cards risk senior manager. “But when it comes to fraud prevention, you really need those texts to be driven by proven prevention strategies and highly trained specialists.”

When a particular transaction is flagged as risky, cardholders receive a text message asking them to verify the transaction or to report it as possible fraud. If the cardholder reports the transaction as fraudulent, TMG puts a hold on the account to prevent any further transactions and works with the cardholder to resolve the situation.

Six additional credit union clients are set to deploy fraud text alerts in the first quarter of 2013. In addition, TMG will soon be adding email to its contact strategy, allowing cardholders to choose between text and email communication for receipt of their fraud alerts.

About TMG
The Members Group (TMG) is dedicated to creating customized, technology-driven card processing and payment solutions for credit unions and community-based financial institutions across North America. Innovations in fraud management, loyalty programs, alternative payment systems and analytic reporting, and the competitive advantages they create, have helped TMG forge a new standard in offering cutting-edge credit, debit, ATM, prepaid card products and a P2P payment solution. For more information, visit http://www.themembersgroup.com/.

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